'Doc Hollywood gives Julie Warner exposure she's been looking for

August 01, 1991|By Lou Cedrone | Lou Cedrone,Evening Sun Staff

Julie Warner, who plays opposite Michael J. Fox in the comedy ''Doc Hollywood,'' settled the issue. In the film, he is short, but she is shorter, and that's the way it is in real life. She didn't have to walk in a trough when they did their scenes together.

''He's about five feet four inches high, and I'm feet two, so it worked,'' said Warner, who plays a young woman living in the town where a surgeon (Fox) is stranded for a time. The movie opens at area theaters tomorrow.

She wants it to be known that she is not kin to the Warner brothers. ''Let's dispel that rumor right now,'' she said. ''We are not related.''

Her father, Neil Warner, is a jingles composer. Her mother is a licensing agent for promotions for movies and other products.

Warner, 26, was born and raised in New York and attended Brown University.

''I was caught by [acting] at an early age,'' she said. When she was going through college, she did summer stock and rep theater. After graduation, she went to California.

''I chose not to go home and struggle with the New York scene,'' she said. ''My size sort of locked me out. I was too short for the stage. I would have been doing character roles, so I went to Los Angeles. There is a lot more happening out there. I also felt it was important to break away from my family.''

Before long, Warner was appearing on television in ''Star Trek -- The Next Generation,'' ''Carol and Co.'' and HBO's ''The Diceman Cometh,'' in which played Andrew Dice Clay's girlfriend.

When she heard about ''Doc Hollywood'' she was told that the producers were probably looking for a name, that they weren't interested in hiring an unknown. ''I had no name,'' she said. ''I had never done a theatrical film.''

She did, however, read. She assumed she would never hear from the producers. ''Then six weeks later, I got a call to audition,'' she said. ''I read the script that night, then the next day, did four scene, and when I finished them, the director said, 'That's the girl.'

''It was like a dream come true,'' she said.

She does a nude scene in the film, but said she would never have done it if there wasn't a legitimate reason for it.

''The girl I play is almost symbolic,'' she said. ''She is the earth-mother type. She is a vegetarian and an animal-rights activist. She is just the sort who would bathe nude in a lake. If the nudity had been exploitative, I would not have done it, but the nude scenes say a whole lot about this woman.''

Warner doesn't have immediate plans for the future, but she says she would like to concentrate on films. ''That doesn't mean you can't cross over,'' she said. ''I'd like to do television, too. There is good and bad in both.''